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High Standards and High Graduation Rates |
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Two national organizations presented ambitious recommendations for creating an education pipeline capable of moving all Massachusetts high school students through an advanced level of skills and credentials that will connect young adults to the well-paying jobs being created in Massachusetts. "In today's economy, our young people need to graduate ready to succeed in postsecondary education and with career-ready skills," according to JFF CEO and President Marlene B. Seltzer. "The consequences for those who are not prepared for college and careers are grim, including higher rates of unemployment, substantially lower earnings, and even a lower likelihood of good health." Each leak along the education pipeline results in significant losses in tax revenue and significant government costs for health care and other social benefits for the Commonwealth." "Massachusetts has much of the architecture in place for achieving a 'dual agenda' of high standards and high graduation rates," explains JFF Associate Vice President Adria Steinberg and a contributor to the report. "Now is the moment to focus on the challenge that remains: closing the graduation and achievement gaps, especially between low-income young people and their more affluent peers." However, the 20 percent of students who do not complete a high school diploma on time are concentrated disproportionately in low-income communities across the state, where high school graduation rates average 62 percent and some districts report rates of 50 percent or lower. Moreover, about one out of every three low-income students fails to graduate on time and nearly 40 percent of the state's public school graduates need to take remedial coursework in public higher education institutions.
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